FIGHT FOR BUKOVINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 281, 6 May 1915, Page 6

FIGHT FOR BUKOVINA.

FIERCE AUSTRIAN ATTACK. ! RUSSIANS' REARGUARD ACTION. HAVOC OF ARTILLERY. Writing towards the end of February, Mr. M. 11. Donohoo, correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, described how the Austrians and Germans threw themselves against the Russian entrenched positions defending Czemowitz, the capital of Bukovina. Denso masses of Austrian and German troops attacked fiercely at two points, 15 miles apart, to cross the Sereth. The southern column was composed of Austrians, with a stiffening of Bavarian troops, and they marched parallel with the Roumanian frontier.

Debouching from the forest of Crauzthal, they crossed the valley of the Moldava, and thence they swung north to the village of Michalc/.e', where they were brought to a dead stop by the entrenched Russians. The northern column wa.B composed entirely of German troops. After gaining Storazynctz, on the left (■eastern) bank of the Sereth, 15 miles south-west of Czernowitz, they gained Kuczucmar and established contact with their 'western column.

The Germans suffered appalling losses in negotiating the passage of the Sereth, the fire of the Russian artillery being terribly effective, and our allies disputing fiercely every yard of the ground. News came that a third force of the enemy had broken through in Galicia and was advancing down the valley of the I'rulh from Washkivitza. It was clear that for possession of'the cast corner of Bukovina—the north-eastern district, in which is the capital—a vast turning movement was being attempted against the Russians. Tho two columns which had in overwhelming numbers already crossed the l!.vcr ccreth, threatened to cut off the retreat from Czernowitz, and the fighting was desperate and continuous.

Our allies fought a magnificent rearguard action, but were pressed back in all directions on a battle front extending to nearly 100 miles. The Russian position in front of Czernowitz had been established on the top of a snow-clad plateau, separated by a deep, snow-bound valley from the main German-Austrian position. It was computed that tho enemy were hurling forward at least three army corps, well supplied with heavy artillery, which fiercely bombarded the Russian positions. Masses of the enemy advanced at three points, and their assaults seemed utterly regardless of losses. Pursuing their favorite tactics of smashing through at any cost as long as they gained the bottom of the valley they began climbing the opposite slope.

Tho Russian artillery soon found the range and simply swept the enemy away as they attempted to advance. It was a grand spectacle. In the snow-carpeted valleys and from the hillsides there'was the continuous roar of heavy artillery, the harsh, snappy sound of the machine guns, joining, in the terrible symphony ofdeath.

Wave after wave of grey-coated Austrians and Germans came on anew, passing over the bodies of their slain comrades, and then would melt away to disintegrate as if they were so many men of snow suddenly exposed to the calorific influence of the spring sunshine. The glistening white surface of the valley was discolored with groups of inanimate objects which, a few hours before, had been living men. They lay there in thousands, annihilated by the Russian shell-fire. Some there were who succeeded in erasing tlie shell-swept valley of i"iith, and, climbing the slope,' confronted the Russians, only to meet their end by a deadly fire at short range from the entrenched Russians.

Isolated groups, of what onee had been whole brigades, flung themselves against the parapets of the trenches, behind which was arranged the brown-coated Russian line, fighting with the fierce and deadly desperation of men prepared to faco extermination in preference to yielding.